Bleach: Reborn Souls
by The Golden Author
Summary: Ichigo defeated Aizen. Normal, everyone knew he could do it. Ichigo lost his powers. Normal, it was to be expected. Ichigo bonded with the Hogyoku. Not normal, it just wasn't possible...right?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Understanding**

**Ok guys, I know what you might be thinking..."What in the world are you doing writing another story when there is like...two that need to be finished and written?" Yeah, you guys caught me! I have been getting a little...lazier I suppose. Oh guys, this is where you say, "Ya think!?"**

**But truth is: I am almost done with the next two chapters of The Changing of Fates so calm down. The Legendary Nine is being rewritten right now. But things have been getting a little out of control. You guys know it's summer right? And usually that's enough time for me to get several chapters up. Well since it's summer, you kinda get a little lazier...ya know, sleeping well into 12:30 in the afternoon until your rents start shouting to get going on the chores that you haven't finished since last month. Excuses, Excuses right? Sorry! I'll stop.**

**But don't worry guys! A chapter should be posted by the end of August.**

Chapter 1: Understanding

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters. God knows I would have never made it as awesome as it is now.

"Regular Speech."

'Thoughts/**Hogyoku**.'

Ichigo gazed at the Hogyoku sitting on the palm of his hand. How such a little thing as this cause so much destruction. It was a _horrifying_ thought.

"Yo! Kurosaki-kun, do you have it?" Urahara Kisuke strolled leisurely towards him, waving that annoying fan of his in a slow wave. The unnerving grey eyes gazed at him from behind the fan; he stared back equally and received a nod from the shop owner.

He nodded back and rolled the Hogyoku back and forth in his palm, then caught it between his thumb and index finger. "This little bugger did all this, huh?" Ichigo motioned all around him, all of Karakura's destroyed buildings. Everything was in shambles, Aizen and the Hogyoku did all this.

Urahara just watched him, Ichigo sighed as he looked at the Hogyoku.

Having the Hogyoku so close was unnerving and breathtaking at the same time. He could feel the power emanating from the orb in his hands and it was pretty obvious why Aizen had fought so much for this object.

He didn't notice his friends trickle into the clearing, little by little, just like tiny ants scurrying to fix a broken part of their nest. The smiles they wore seemed to evaporate slowly as they watched him observe the Hogyoku. Orihime was the first to gather courage, breaking apart from the bunch to stand in front of him. Grabbing his hands, making him blink out of his trance, she smiled hesitantly.

"Kurosaki-kun? Are you okay?" Orihime asked with concern showing in her eyes.

"Eh? Oh yeah, I'm fine Orihime. You should be more worried about yourself though, you look tired."

Orihime smiled sheepishly, "I'm fine Kurosaki-kun! You know me! I'm like a cat; I just get up again and again!"

Ichigo chuckled and looked at all his friends. He smiled softly, "It's done you guys. We won." Everybody started cheering and he resumed his observation of the Hogyoku. Urahara was soon joined by a celebrating Yourouchi and he also left to another area of the big hole in the ground they were in.

From the back of his mind, he felt a prickling tingle. It was _comforting_ and _warm_. It spread through him and he breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going to be _okay_.

He saw Urahara and walked towards the shop keeper. Stopping in front of him he grasped the Hogyoku tightly before loosening his grip and handing it to the former Shinigami. Urahara also observed it with curiosity, like he wanted to see the stages of progress the Hogyoku had undergone while in ownership of Aizen. However he glanced at the spellbound Ichigo and chuckled.

Smiling, he shook his head, "I think you should stay with this, Kurosaki-San. Keep it as a souvenir if you would. I see nothing wrong with you keeping it. Keep it." He urged and bounded away towards Isshin, not letting him protest.

Gripping the orb tightly in his hand, he felt _relief_ at being able to stay with the Hogyoku. It was like...suddenly he couldn't live the Hogyoku. He already felt Zangetsu fading- even his Hollow's presence was receding. Strangely he thought he felt another presence slipping inside, but he didn't panic although something told him to keep quiet about this anomaly.

His father was staring at him with concern but Ichigo turned around and walked towards an uprooted rock, still keeping the Hogyoku tightly in his hand. "So now what?"

Isshin smiled, "We rebuild of course." And it wasn't the town he meant.

And then throbbing pain assaulted the side of his head. His hand flew to rub the pain away, but that's when the wooziness overtook him. His father; already understanding what would happen, said, "Rest now, son."

And then the world went black.

_I want to understand._

_If I had a manipulative mind like Aizen…would I understand him?_

_If I had a bright mind like Urahara, would I understand him?_

_If I was as cold as Byakuya, would I understand him?_

_If I was as optimistic as Orihime, would I understand her?_

_If I was as mighty as Yama-jiji, would I understand him?_

_If I was as destructive as Grimmjow would I have understood him?_

_If I was as emotionless as Uliqiorra, would I have understood him?_

_I want to understand._

'**_As you wish…'_**


	2. Chapter 2: Life as it Goes

**Chapter 2: Life as it Goes**

**_Here's the next chapter guys. It seems strange right? That I write long chapters with my other stories but with this one, I simply don't. Well anyways...enjoy._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and its characters._**

"Regular Speech."

'_Thoughts and conversations with inner souls._/**_Hogyoku_**.'

**Chapter 2: Life as it Goes**

* * *

_1 year later._

Ichigo sighed as he watched outside the window. He was now almost graduating and soon he would be out of Karakura High School. It had already been a year since he lost his power and things had changed. Meanwhile he had gotten a job and yet he was constantly bored out of his mind. Things here didn't make it even better.

This morning he had managed to make Yuzu upset. He didn't mean for that to happen, he really didn't, but he couldn't be the _sunshine_ in the house, that was Old Goat-chin's job. He still felt like he should apologize but…

And Karin was another problem. At least to him, but not a have-to-take-care of this problem kind of problem. No it was an I-must-figure-this-out kind of problem. She was now the one who had powers with the disposition to be a high-end medium. Since he had lost his powers her powers have been getting stronger.

It has been around 17 _months_ since the battle, a little over a year. Now he was senior in high school. While he had been asleep, Chad and Inoue told everybody about the deal with his Shinigami powers. They told him everybody believed them. After seeing what they did with their own eyes of course they would. He was just glad they accepted it without asking questions. He had enough worries and problems as it did- well he had...back then.

But now… he had _no_ Shinigami powers anymore.

He had always yearned to be normal when he had his powers, but now that he had normalcy, he regretted those wishes. He never took into account how much his powers had changed his life. Being without them was like he had been stripped of a part of his soul. Literally.

So life continued, he watched from afar as Chad and Uryuu battled Hollows, he watched as their powers grew while he rotted without them. He wasn't jealous of them, no, he was proud of his friends for coming so far. But he missed those days where he fought and battled, he missed the feeling of Zangetsu in his hands, he missed feeling the soft Shinigami uniform, and he missed a lot.

Sighing he gripped the Hogyoku in his hands and tried to pay attention to the ramblings of his instructor. No such luck however came; school did always have that unmistakable talent to make life a living hell. He gazed down to the Hogyoku, a constant presence in his daily life. He always felt comforted by the silent Hogyoku. He had grown accustomed to its power; he knew that his friends flinched from having it so close to them. Indeed the power of the Hogyoku was something to bear, but to him it was just a blanket of comfort. That and the Soul Reaper Deputy Badge. Those two items were always with him.

He had forgotten to return the badge and since he had no powers, the abilities the badge had were gone so now it was a regular plaque. Better that way- he figured.

However sometimes he had felt the urge to claw someone to death, or sometimes he felt so emotionless, or he felt the need to start drawing on paper the foundation of something that intrigued him. Other times he felt flashbacks of people he didn't know, or the need to make crazy experiments. Sometimes he felt solitude and the need to just lounge around being lazy. There were other quirks but not as often as those.

He knew some of those quirks. They were from the Hogyoku-made Espadas or those that were given powers by it. He had even met the Espada again, even after their deaths. Talking about them…

'_**Yo-ho Kurosaki! I am so bored. Your inner world is so messed up I am about to send myself to Hell. Really, who has a horizontal inner world.'**_

'_Shut it, I don't see why you are complaining. Or do you want me to make it more distorted?'_

'**_Pshh, as if you could. How much more messed up can you get? You are already somehow mentally unstable. Wait…why?'_**

'_Why what?'_

'**_Why are you mentally unstable?' _**

He snorted silently, shrugging half-heartedly, and for the life of him, he could quite understand why some students were staring at himself like he was some sort of ballerina dancing in the middle of a bar. But Grimmjow could make Ichigo do things like that most often. Just like his Hollow who had taken the _honors _of making Ichigo's '**normal' **life a living hell.

'_Oh and you are so perfectly stable?'_

'**_At least I'm way cooler about it than you. Besides, I'd like for the one that protects my soul to be stable.' _**

Was that actual _concern_ right there, coming from Grimmjow?

'_Grimmjow, please, later. Not now.'_

'**_Fine!'_**

Urahara had not yet reclaimed the Hogyoku so Ichigo was forced to wonder what Urahara's motive was for all of this. Urahara always planned; his inquisitive mind was one that could not rest. Ichigo had come to appreciate the man's brains when Urahara got him out of some pickle. However, if Ichigo played a part in another one of Urahara's crazy schemes, he would snap. Yet even he could feel some apprehension if he dwelled too much in this, like if something bad was coming and that the geta-wearing man was simply planning for those events. Damn that shopkeeper. He had plans for everything he did. Rukia's near loss of Shinigami powers was proof of that, also his Hollowification process. The man had it in him to make guinea pigs out of the most unsuspecting of people.

He was abruptly pushed out of his thoughts as the bell rang and he surged forward to the door, anxious to leave the classroom. He headed towards the roof as his friends followed. It was lunch time, and he had nothing to eat, not that he had appetite anyways. He had been losing appetite for quite a while but he never felt particularly hungry, just really thirsty.

"Hey, Kurosaki-kun! Are you alright?" Orihime asked, catching up to him as he stared at the ground far below him from the sides of the roof.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just enjoying the breeze." Not really, he had been thinking about Chad. His giant friend had been missing school quite a lot. He was worried, he felt like something was going to happen. Something bad. Things had been too quiet and boring lately, it was about time something happened. Not that he would be included.

He also had no plans for the future. No interests in human careers, nothing. But then maybe he could leave Karakura Town. He could go to some remote place and help out as a field doctor. That held more interest than anything right now. He could get away from many a source of his problems. Although it wasn't fair that he would leave his friends and family; he didn't doubt that a decision to leave might become a possibility in the near future.

"…You know Kurosaki-kun, I wonder how you would look in a captain's haori." Orihime's quiet mumble made him jolt a little.

Ichigo turned towards Orihime with a surprised look on his face. "I-I don't know. What's with the sudden comment, Orihime?"

"Wha! Oh, nothing Kurosaki-kun, just rambling, you know just being my loud self." Orihime bonked her head and shook her head vigorously making Ichigo smirk. This was the old Orihime he knew. Orihime just wasn't serious; she wasn't made to bear a responsibility like others, she was the relief. She was a support; a fountain of help and advice, a healer through and through.

"..." His scowl became more pronounced when his canteen of water drained low. He hadn't even noticed he'd drank at all. He nodded towards Orihime, "I have to go, Orihime, have a nice day."

With that Ichigo walked towards the door brushing past his friends and exited the roof leaving Orihime behind.

"Oh, Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime whispered sadly.

'_Why do I have to be so powerless?'_

* * *

**CUT!**

**Ok, just so you guys can get a little cleared up, the last comment can be taken as something said by several characters. It could be Ichigo; as he is powerless. Or it could be his friends, especially Orihime; since they can't really do anything to help him.**

**And yes, that was Grimmjow who was talking. And a little more will be explained later on. Oh, and Ichigo thinking about being a field doctor was something I thought could be a within-reach-goal for Ichigo since he works at a clinic, he could have picked up several info around the years. The plot will become a little thicker as it goes. And I forgot to mention, the final arc withYhwach and Quincies will appear, although I'm thinking that maybe Ichigo should have a small interference at the beginning.**

**Who knows? Things can change!**

**Ya ne,**

**The Golden Author.**


End file.
